Revenge of the Rejects

Players love to roll up new characters. The randomness and uncertainty is thrilling, and the process encourages players to discover their characters through creation rather than fulfilling a pre-decided ideal. But since the early days of the RPG hobby, people have debated the best way to do this. 

Today, I settle this debate. I have detailed below the best system for D&D-style 3-to-18 base statistics (OK, I have not tested this yet, so it may not in fact be the best system).

Players roll their character’s abilities straight down the line. No point buy, no standard array, no 4d6 drop-the-lowest. Maybe allow a single swap of any two stats (ala Knave 1.0), but that’s it. We want very quick, straightforward characters.

Here’s the trick: Players can reroll any number of times. What, you might reasonably ask, is preventing them from simply rerolling endlessly, until they get a character with exclusively good-to-great stats?

Option 1: They’re Going to Hold This Against You

The answer is simple. The DM keeps each character that the players reject. Each of those rejected characters becomes an NPC in the game. Each rejected character is an antagonist or rival to the group as a whole, or -- better yet -- to the player who passed on them. 

The intensity of their enmity goes up incrementally the more characters a player rejects. The first one they turn down might be a schoolyard rival or nosey neighbor. The tenth one is going to be a major world power or potential campaign antagonist.

Option 2: Group Draft

Each player rolls the first of six stats, writes it down, and then decides to either hold onto the sheet or pass it clockwise. Players opting to pass circulate their sheets amongst the other passing players. A player who passes their sheet and doesn't accept someone else's can start a new sheet. If all players reject a particular sheet, the DM gets that character sheet. This process continues until all players settle on a completed character sheet.

The DM keeps all the sheets that weren't claimed and uses them to collectively build an antagonist, villain, or organization integral to the scenario. This person or organization's strength in the world is proportional to the number of sheets the DM received (for example, the number of sheets could equal HD for a monster, or number of hexes controlled by an enemy army). If the DM chooses to make them an NPC or monster, the DM can pick and choose the best statistics from among the sheets they received. If they choose to make them an organization, faction, or something more abstract, the numbers can still inform how the resulting antagonistic force works.